“Most people see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’   Others dream things as they never were and ask, ‘Why not?'” George Bernard Shaw 

Cities which have become OBESE are OBeCities

In recent times cities have ballooned uncontrollably.  What once was an agglomeration of just a few thousand buildings became tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and now millions of buildings of many different shapes and sizes and purposes – the vast majority of inferior quality and low aesthetic standard.  Unplanned, unwanted ugly growth is analogous to cancer.  SPRAWL is CITY CANCER..! 

Is it not time to change this outmoded and hopelessly inefficient city concept..?

Green Point, Cape Town.  This iconic site is presently occupied by the 2010 World Cup stadium, a “white elephant”).  This single habitat could house more people, in more comfort and far better security, than all the buildings in the foreground and near background.  And would contain shops, schools, workplaces, leisure facilities, public and cultural facilities, etc.   

Deltapolis is a template for a new kind of city that would conserve resources, save the countryside from sprawl “development”, whilst re-afforesting and enhancing the landscape  

Deltapolis looks like a large luxury resort hotel set amidst an Arcadian landscape of gardens, ornamental lakes, woodland trails and glades dotted with gazebos, pavilions, charming rustic inns and romantic architectural follies.   The striking exterior is mirrored by an equally awe-inspiring interior – a magnificent atrium of cascading water, grottoes, rock pools, sub-tropical plants and bird-life – bathed in natural light from an open skylight inspired by the Roman Pantheon’s “oculus”.   Deltapolis is designed as a self-contained off-grid community for 7,500 residents who would live, work, shop, and play in a secure environment and with a high degree of self-sufficiency.  

Such structures could either be (1) located within an existing city given the availability of a sufficiently large site (as depicted here in Cape Town), or (2) “stand alone” in open countryside, or (3) a self-contained suburb on the periphery of a sprawl city or (4) an aggregated cluster of similar structures which together would form a new “Eco-city”.  

Worthy to be proclaimed “3rd Millennium Cities”

• POWERED ENTIRELY BY BUILDING-INTEGRATED SOLAR & WIND ENERGY –
• OFF-GRID ENERGY AUTONOMY – energy storage system coming soon, but we’re not quite there yet..!
• ICONIC edifices encircled by idyllic gardens, ornamental lakes, rustic woodland glades and paths, etc.
• STRESS-FREE – no commuting or “school-runs” or rushing-around to shops, etc.
• NOISE-FREE – no honking cars, raucous motorbikes, police/emergency sirens, clattering rubbish trucks, etc, etc.
• CLEAN AIR – no large industrial plants, power stations or motorised transport
• WATER self-sufficiency, rainfall collection, storage, filtration, and re-use of waste water.
• VIRTUAL ZERO-WASTE – potential for 95% waste recovery (not forgetting very useful No2’s)
• COMPATIBLE CITIZENRY –
  • communities for vegans, non-drinkers, gays, or by religion, nationality, race, etc
  • or, multi-cultural communities for those who think it is a “great strength”… lets see if it really is..!
• SAFETY & SECURITY – limited access points with airport-style security screening 
• TERRORIST PROOF – no weapons, truck or car bombs – or people rammers – could gain access.
• DEFENSIBILITY – against incursion by anarchic mobs without (coming soon to your neighbourhood)
• PANDEMIC PROTECTION – quarantining and isolation quickly and easily implemented
• SOCIO-ECONOMIC LABORATORY – new concepts in education, health-care, democracy, etc., could be trialled on a small scale.   With full consent of the citizenry of course (see next item)
• POLITICAN-FREE SOCIETIES – no professional politicians needed, just a convening/admin body
  • every citizen could become a politician on the issues which concern them
  • everything would be possible with open debates and referenda held on all manner of issues.
  • Any citizen (but more likely a group) could submit an issue for debate and a public vote
  • A submission fee will have to be paid, in order to limit debates to sensible, non-trivial, matters
• COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE PLEDGE – a benign form of “National Service” 
  • Will get many essential community jobs done whilst creating strong community cohesion
• COMMUNITY FARMING drawing inspiration from the Israeli kibbutz system.

Let the river of liberty run free..!

An even more exciting future possibility is the establishment of City States on sites leased from host countries, in the manner of the once-resoundingly successful Hong Kong..!   The usual left-field whiners will disparage the idea as “neo-colonialism”, but such enclaves would bring many benefits to any “host country” that has the wisdom and vision to embrace the idea.  It will not be easy to break through the narrow-minded nationalists piously proclaiming “territorial integrity”, but once the logjam has been breached the river of freedom can run free.  If it has happened before, it can definitely happen again..!

 

Much more on this HERE and elsewhere.      

Oasis Cities are simply and self-evidently a far more civilised way of living 

It may already be too late to “save the planet”, but Oasis Cities may still be able to “save civilisation”